One of Us: Evan Hilton's six-second film a popular choice at the Tribeca Film Festival

Working with his iPhone camera, Evan Hilton, who lives in Fruit Cove, is making a name for himself with his 6-second Vine videos. His stop motion animated film "Shaking Free" won the audience award at the 6 Second Film Festival, a part of the Tribeca Film Festival. This has led to commercial jobs for the FSCJ freshman. Bob.Self@jacksonville.com

It lasts six seconds.

An unsteady hand places a pepper shaker on a white surface. The shaker tips over and spills a few grains of pepper. Then the grains coalesce into a small, animated figure who exits stage left.

Those six seconds may have changed Evan Hilton’s life.

The 19-year-old Fruit Cove resident, a freshman at Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Deerwood Campus, submitted that brief film, created on Vine, to the Tribeca Film Festival’s #6SecFilms competition. Vine is a website that allows users to create and share six-second videos.

Last Tuesday, five winners were announced, one each in the categories of animation, drama, comedy and genre. Hilton’s film, “Shaking Free,” was not chosen by jurors as the best film in the animation category. But in online voting by more than 6,000 people, Hilton was chosen for the #6SecFilms Audience Choice award. Like the other four winners, he will get an individual meeting with the founders of GrapeStory, a mobile-first marketing agency and production house.

Hilton, who wants a career in marketing, is already seeing results.

“Right now, I would say that Vine is starting to become a career for me,” Hilton said. “I’m getting contacted by companies. Vine is a great way to advertise.”

Given that he’s a student and had a job at Publix in Fruit Cove, Hilton has a pretty busy life. He got interested in Vine, which debuted in January 2013, last year while a senior at Bartram Trail High School.

“I was taking an AP art class and I painted and drew,” he said. “But I got bored with that ... Then I went on Vine and I saw all these awesome animations. I fell in love with it.”

Hilton said he was aware last year of the inaugural #6SecFilms contest. But he didn’t have an idea he wanted to submit.

This year he had a flash of inspiration while looking at a pepper shaker.

Winning the Audience Choice award really surprised him, he said, because he has only 30,000 followers on Vine while some of the other people who entered the contest — there were 536 entries from 24 countries —had 10 times that number.

“The idea that strangers might be voting for my work surprised and excited me,” he said.